• Safaricom Ethiopia has partnered with EthioPost to expand the distribution of M-Pesa mobile money services.
• EthioPost will act as a principal agent, using its nationwide network of post offices and sub-agents.
• The move comes as Safaricom seeks to gain ground against Ethio Telecom’s dominant Telebirr platform.

Safaricom Ethiopia has partnered with the state-owned postal operator EthioPost to broaden the reach of its mobile money platform M-Pesa across the country, as it seeks to attract more users in an increasingly competitive market.

In a March 12 statement, M-Pesa Ethiopia said it had signed an agreement appointing EthioPost as a principal agent within the M-Pesa ecosystem. Under the arrangement, the postal operator will rely on its established presence and extensive network of branches to offer mobile money services at its outlets, supported by a large base of sub-agents.

The collaboration will allow EthioPost to play a central role in expanding M-Pesa’s footprint, ensuring that more customers can access reliable mobile financial services—such as cash withdrawals, deposits, and assisted payments—close to where they live and work, M-Pesa said in the statement.

Safaricom Expands Partnerships in a Competitive Market

The initiative forms part of Safaricom’s broader effort to strengthen its position in Ethiopia’s mobile money sector since launching commercial operations in August 2023.

In October 2025, the operator integrated M-Pesa into the national payment network EthSwitch. Earlier, in March 2025, it partnered with fintech firm Lakipay to facilitate merchant payments.

The company has also pursued collaborations with public institutions. In July 2024, it signed an agreement with the national electricity utility to allow customers to pay power bills through M-Pesa. In October 2024, Safaricom expanded its M-Pesa Global service to Ethiopia, enabling money transfers between Kenya and Ethiopia.

These initiatives reflect Safaricom’s strategy to diversify its financial services offering and build partnerships, including with public authorities, to support digital payments as part of the country’s digital transformation.

The operator is attempting to gain a foothold in a market where the incumbent telecom provider Ethio Telecom holds a significant lead with its Telebirr platform. Launched in May 2021, Telebirr had 58.61 million subscriptions as of December 2025.

By comparison, M-Pesa counted 3.4 million active subscribers as of September, representing about 30% of Safaricom’s mobile subscribers, while its network covered 55% of the population. On a year-over-year basis, the number of users grew by around 175%.

A Market With Room for Growth

Despite strong competition, Ethiopia’s mobile money market still offers significant growth potential.

The country had about 132 million inhabitants in 2024, according to the World Bank. Combined subscriptions from the two operators reach roughly 62 million users, implying a penetration rate of around 47%.

Actual adoption may be lower, however, because statistics often count each SIM card using the service as a separate subscriber, even though a single person may hold multiple SIMs.

A 2023 report by the GSMA estimated that mobile money adoption could reach about 60% of the population aged over 15 by 2030 in the most favorable scenario, compared with 5% in 2022. In an intermediate scenario, the rate would rise to around 40%, while the most pessimistic projection puts adoption at about 16%.

Isaac K. Kassouwi